TITLE: The Philosophical Strangler AUTHOR: Eric Flint SERIES: Joe s World PUBLISHER: Baen DATE: 2001 Man, I miss Eric Flint. If you re not aware, Flint was an extremely prolific author of science fiction, alternate history, and fantasy, mostly writing for Baen Books. He s most famous for his 1632 series, a massive, sprawling network of books and Continue reading BOOK REVIEW: The Philosophical…
We were all set for The Odyssey to be our summer discourse. Battle lines had been drawn, takes had been prepared. Christopher Nolan s adaptation of Homer s 8th century BCE epic poem was woke and historically inaccurate . Conservatives declared that having Lupita Nyong’o play Helen of Troy was an attempt to humiliate and demoralize them, and Continue reading Did Odysseus Cause the Bronze Age…
To the Classical World of Greece and Rome, the edge of the known world was marked by the Straits of Gibraltar or as they knew it as, the Pillars of Hercules. There were various legends associated with this narrow passage; that Hercules traveled there to steal that Cattle of Geryon, that he destroyed the land bridge Continue reading The Empresa de China the Hapsburg Bid for World Supremacy
Strange is the night where black stars rise/and strange moons circle through the skies/but stranger still is Lost Carcosa. The King in Yellow, Robert W. Chambers What is it we ve brought back, to run wild once more on the ridge of the world? The Protector s War, S.M. Stirling As the hour of midnight was Continue reading The World of the King in Yellow
I have owned a copy of The Odyssey since we read some excerpts from it in my junior year of high school English class, when we did a module on oral traditions of storytelling, but it wasn t until recently that I sat down and actually read it all the way through. (Specifically the 1996 Bernard Continue reading Sing O Muse, of the Broship of Pallas Athena and Odysseus
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that maps and history are two of my favorite things. I love history because I love learning about the vast panoply of the human experience, the millions of twisting threads of time that created the world we live in today. And I Continue reading Visualizing the Past (Part Four)
A week ago, the Supreme Court of the United States decided to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, clearing the way for Southern states to reimpose discriminatory maps that strip representation from African-American populations. This follows in the wake of a series of SCOTUS diktats reversing landmark civil rights legislation, including Shelby County in 2013 and Continue reading Delegitimizing the…
I think Texan singer-songwriter James McMurtry is one of the greatest living lyricists in America. He writes these richly-layered narratives, diving deep into the lives of ordinary people, painting a picture of their story and making you feel them, deep down in your soul. His father, Larry McMurtry, was a celebrated novelist, and James does Continue reading The Disillusionment of James McMurtry
TITLE: The Folded Sky AUTHOR: Elizabeth Bear SERIES: White Space PUBLISHER: Saga Press DATE: 2025 Is this the most recent book I ve reviewed on here? I think it might be my choices usually tend to be volumes that I ve ruminated on for years, books that I read as a child that I couldn t stop thinking about, Continue reading BOOK REVIEW: The Folded Sky
Today we are once again going to talk about the Honor Harrington series, and once again, I m going to complain about it. I m worried this might give readers the impression that I dislike this series, which is truly not the case. David Weber s Honorverse might genuinely be one of my all-time favorite series, and it s Continue reading The Government of the Star Kingdom of Manticore: A Critical…